Make Your Boss Look Good

It's a fact that all large organizations operate based on politics. Managers
collect big salaries, and they don't want to lose that money when they make a
mistake. In fact, they strive to make even bigger money by making themselves look
good (usually by making someone else look bad). Organizational politics is a
complex game of back stabbing and ass covering.

At the manager level, playing politics is not a choice, it's a requirement for
survival. Although workers are not generally involved in an organizations political
game, you can make big points by helping your boss play the game. You do this by
making your boss look good.

Never disagree with or confront your boss in public. This will cause them to
lose face. If you disagree with your boss, inform them politely in private that
you are expressing your opinion to give the boss more information. Let the boss
know that despite your disagreement, you intend to carry out your assignment
the bosses way.

Some bosses will try to cover their ass by blaming their mistakes on you. Your
best response is to just shrug it off. In an organization, everybody knows who
is really responsible when a mistake is made.

Some bosses want honest answers. other bosses want an excuse they can use
to cover their ass. Some workers have such good rapport with their boss that
they can give them an honest answer along with excuses the boss can use to play
the political game (cover their ass).

In an organization a manager or boss is assigned a project and along with that
project they are given the resources required to accomplish the project, including
workers. If the manager fails to accomplish the project in the scheduled time
with the allotted resources, they well may be fired. The interesting thing is
that if the manager fails to accomplish the assigned a project, even though it
is entirely the fault of one of their workers, the manager still gets fired.

That's because the manager takes total responsibility for their employees.
If an employee is not doing their job, it's the manager's responsibly to make
sure the employee does their job. If not, the manager can get fired. The employee
may get fired too (if the manager has time to fire the employee before they get fired).

The reason I mention this is because your boss may take credit for your work.
If your boss may take takes credit for your work, keep in mind that if you screwed
up your boss would take the heat. Your best response is to just shrug it off. In
an organization, everybody knows who is really responsible for any work that is
accomplished.

Never make your boss look bad. Always give advance notice of when you will
take time off, and provide a way to cover your responsibilities while you're
gone. Try to make your boss look good. In fact, if you accomplish something
successful that has high visibility in the organization, give your boss the
credit. Then inform your boss of your career goals. That's another rule of the
politics game - you take care of me and I'll take care of you.

Your boss is the most important individual to work with to achieve success
at Work. Your boss is a unique individual that can get in a bad mood, make a
bad decision, or exhibit imperfections just like anyone else. The key to
achieving success at Work is to Work around the idiosyncrasies of Your boss.